This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
Many modern automotive vehicles, such as crossover vehicles, are available with an all-wheel drive (AWD) drivetrain that is based on a front-wheel drive (FWD) architecture. This optional drivetrain arrangement permits drive torque to be selectively and/or automatically transferred from the powertrain to both the primary (i.e., front) driveline and the secondary (i.e., rear) driveline to provide better traction. Such AWD vehicles are typically equipped with a much more complex drivetrain (relative to a FWD architecture) which, in addition to the primary driveline, must include the additional components associated with the secondary driveline such as a power take-off unit (“PTU”) and a propshaft.
In a traditional PTU, rotational power is transmitted from the powertrain to a gear shaft, and from the gear shaft to a ring gear. The ring gear transmits power to a pinion gear which in turn transmits power to the propshaft. Traditionally, the ring gear is fitted about the gear shaft then welded in place to the gear shaft. This welding is typically done via laser welding, which can be costly and time consuming. To this end, there remains a need in the art for development of improved driveline components for use in the drivelines of AWD vehicles.